On the Seventeenth Day
Original manuscripts by the "calligraphy sage" Wang Xizhi and other early masters were already rare in the early Tang dynasty (618-907), when a major effort to collect and authenticate Wang's writings was sponsored by the imperial court. To preserve and propagate these precious writing models, precise tracings were made, as were stone or wood-carved reproductions. Rubbings taken from the carved reproductions provided the principal means for students to acquire and study classical models.
On the Seventeenth Day is a selection of twenty-nine letters written by Wang Xizhi collected under the sponsorship of the Tang emperor Taizong (r. 627-49), a devoted student of Wang's writing style and the compiler of a comprehensive collection of Wang's surviving works. The title derives from the initial characters of the first letter. Extant rubbings of the manuscript date to the Song dynasty (960-1279) or later and vary tremendously in quality. The Song rubbings, of which several versions are known, were based in turn on Tang tracings or rubbings. The dominant type, such as this example, ends with the large imperial cipher qi ("imperial order") followed by a brief inscription stating that the emperor ordered the copy carved on stone as the official version of the Hongwen Academy.
Artwork Details
- 東晉 王羲之 十七日帖 十三世紀拓本
- Title: On the Seventeenth Day
- Calligrapher: Wang Xizhi (Chinese, 303–361)
- Date: 13th century rubbing of a 4th century text
- Culture: China
- Medium: Album of thirty leaves; ink on paper
- Dimensions: Each leaf: 9 5/8 x 5 in. (24.4 x 12.7 cm)
- Classification: Rubbing
- Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng, 1991
- Object Number: 1991.380
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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